Zone Conference in Chișnău

I feel like I start every single one of my e-mails with, "This weeks was so awesome!!" But really this week was so awesome:)

We headed down to the Zone Conference in Chișnău on Tuesday with the new Senior Couple here in Bacau.  What a road trip!! We made it all the way to the capitol of another country without the use of a map or GPS. It was about 6 hours drive in total if you include the wait on the boarder. The senior couple hadn't even previously google mapped anything to prepare for the trip.  Everytime we thought we were on the wrong street they would roll down the window and in Romanian ask, "Chișnău va rog?" Chișnău please? And the innocent bystander would point in the direction we needed to go.  

 

When we got to Chișnău we arrived just in time to participate is the Family Home Evening activity which was a mean game of musical chairs in which the losers had to take a spoonful of really nasty baby food.  There were kids spiting out the stuff and gagging at the taste of the Moldovan baby foods. Some of the flavors included broccoli, Meat with heart, and meat with liver.  The last boy who got out was awarded a really special treat by having a combination of all of the flavors.  He ran out of the room almost spiting it back up.  It was pretty bad.  Luckily we were a little to late to join the ranks of the musical chairs.

 

Zone conference was amazing!! It was all about obedience and the fact the we as missionaries and members here in Romania and Moldova hold the future of the church here in our hands.  The mission is growing exponentially. It is really cool to be here at this time and see it in person.  Just in Chișnău alone we had a total of 600 new English student enroll in our last transfer.  In the tiny city of Bacau we had our first real English class with the new enrollment of 20 students!! It looks incredibly small in comparison to Moldova, but yes it was a big step for our area here. 

 

I found out this week that I will be a training a new missionary!! Woot Woot!!! I am so excited!! I have been working on my language this last transfer soooo much and thanks to Sora Merkley it really has gotten a lot better, the better to hear my own mistakes. So I am headed down to Bucaresti tomorrow to attend a trainers meeting, apparently part of that is going on a run with the mission president and everyone else who is a whole lot healthier than I am... seeew .... we will see how that goes!!! 

 

I am also losing a companion this week!! I am super sad!! Sora Merkley will be headed home to Vernal, Utah next week after touring the country of Romania with here parents. As a final tribute to one of my favorite companions (They are all my favorite) I would just ike to say how thankful I am to her and to all she taught me.  The number one thing I think I learned from her is how to slow down and live in the now instead of the future.  She has one of the strongest testimonies, and I love that about her.  

Anyways I love you all !!! The church is true, promise.  I am a witness to the miracle that the change of the gospel brings to so many.  I am so grateful to be a witness of that.  For one thing, I have become a pretty good branch pianist, and that in and of itself is a miracle. 

 

Sora Long

 

 

Andreea, Sora Merkley and I at our last Vikings excursion for lunch.

 

Sora Merkley and I standing in front of the Chapel in Chishanau before Zone Conference.